Fresh, healthy foods prepared on a grill are both flavorful and nourishing. As a result, the popularity of grilled foods continues to increase. Restaurants offer a variety of grilled selections. Cookbooks abound with grilling recipes. However, properly preparing foods on traditional grills can be difficult.
For example, charcoal grills typically require a waiting period following ignition of the charcoal in order to allow for a proper cooking temperature to be achieved. And, even then, the temperature is far from precise and consistent. Additionally, although many charcoal grills are portable, some are permanently installed, such as in parks and multi-family residences. At least with respect to such permanently installed grills, direct food contact with the permanent grill surface is not necessarily desirable. For example, such a grill surface may not be clean. And, with respect to essentially all grills, frequently, either from repeated use, improper cleaning, utensil damage, or the like, foods may unfortunately adhere thereto.
Personal gas grills overcome many of these disadvantages, wherein warm up and temperature accuracy and precision are improved. However, presently available grill grates continue to offer disadvantages in view of the present invention. In addition to foods adhering to the surface thereof, known grill grates allow for flame ups, quickly burning foods and food surfaces, and known grill grates generally do not allow for effective grilling of a wide variety of foods. Non-stick surfaces such as TEFLON cannot be utilized on grates exposed to high temperature grilling environments because of off-gassing and decomposition. Porcelain, an alternative grate surface coating, can withstand high temperatures; however, porcelain is frequently subject to easy abrasion and chipping. Cleaning is difficult, at best. Even in the absence of food-sticking issues, many foods unfortunately fall through the rungs or grates of known grills. Baskets and foils have been suggested as a means of containing smaller, at-risk foods for grilling; however, such devices either generally do not allow for the full realization of the true “grilling” flavor because of a lack of surface contact, or searing, or because of too much surface contact, resulting in a pan-seared finish rather than a grilled finish.
Indoor devices have been offered with a variety of cook surfaces in an effort to avoid some of the deficiencies of outdoor grilling surfaces and also in an effort to eliminate the need to venture out-of-doors into the elements in order to grill. Each is disadvantageous in view of the present invention. For example, self-contained electric grilling units for indoor use provide a means of grilling meats or the like, but are generally unable to accommodate a wide variety of foods. Further, cleaning is frequently a difficult chore. Similarly, stove top grill components also provide a means of grilling some foods; however, such components are typically cumbersome, messy to use, and also difficult to clean.
Devices intended for oven-based simulation of grilled foods have been described, but these, too, are disadvantageous in view of the present invention. Components exist for direct use on an existing oven rack, or as replacements for oven racks; however, these known devices do not alleviate the limitations with respect to the effective grilling of a variety of foods. Further, these known devices do not effectively re-create the grilled food flavor and/or appearance, they generally allow for messy dripping and flame-ups, and they continue to be difficult to clean.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a need for a system and device for grilling foods, wherein a non-stick, distinctively-shaped grate is able to withstand high temperature grilling to deliver effective and evenly-grilled flavor to virtually any food, wherein such a grate can be utilized in combination with essentially any outdoor grill, and such a grate can further be utilized in combination with a uniquely specialized nesting pan for unparalleled indoor, in-oven grilling, thereby defining a grilling system with a plurality of applications and avoiding the above-discussed disadvantages.